Monday, March 23, 2009

Taking the joy out of Uni

Staying in the dorm is part and parcel of university life. In countries where their sovereignity stretch for miles, the dorm is a place where students call their home away from home. In Singapore, dorms just don't have the same feel because we are so small.

Over the last two weeks, the concept of dorm living just got dimmer. Students who decided to have a bit of fun ran stark naked from one building to another and were labelled 'streakers'. Certainly, this label is too harsh on a few tertiary students having some fun?

To make matters worse, they were expelled forever from the joy that a dorm life can bring. Seriously, a lesser punishment will suffice?

The naked mile is not something special or exclusive to Singapre dorms. In Australia, UK or the States, dozens of college students do this mile bi-annually. It has become something of a culture, with peals of laughter at the end. In Singapore, frowns persist and hands are not raised to cheer but to condemn these wrong-doers to eternal shame.

As we start to mature as a society, surely we can be abit more accomodating? Worse things go on in Singapore dorm rooms. Stories of sexual escapades, flings and all sorts of other illicit activities fill the corridors. Surely these offenses are worse?

Yet, as long as these stories of vice and sex remain uncovered, these naked mile runners will be the most shocking thing that has ever rocked Singapore's "conservative" dorms.

Before we start vilifying this group of fun-loving streakers, perhaps we should start documenting what goes on behind closed doors at dorms in Singapore.